Journeys of a Titan: 100,000 Years Later Part 1
by Loo Dig-E
Summary: The war is lost. Humanity has fallen. As the Forerunner's genocidal campaign nears completion, at least one human manages to escape their wrath. Now, 100,000 years later, the last Titan once again finds herself on a journey to save humanity, uncover the past, and reclaim what was lost.
1. Chapter 1

Therum Falling

**LOCATION: MILKY WAY/ARTEMIS TAU/KNOSSOS SYSTEM/THERUM**

**DATE (IMPERIUM CALENDER): 22-10-51618**

**ONGOING EVENT: SIEGE OF KNOSSOS, SECOND HUMAN-FORERUNNER WAR**

Therum was one of the few fortress worlds that survived the Human-Flood War, but it did not survive unscathed. The Flood never managed to land troops en masse before their demise, but they did significantly damage Therum's planetary defenses, defenses that were not completely repaired before the Forerunners arrived. The repairs of the orbital bombardment defense shields for the land masses were completed, but the repairs of the shielding over the oceans were only beginning initial preparations two days before the attack.

The Humans had made the Forerunners pay with entire generations in every battle of the Second Human-Forerunner War, but after the San 'Shyuum surrendered, winnable battles became one sided sieges as the Forerunners whittled away at the exhausted humans who could no longer afford to deploy reinforcements to halt Forerunner aggression. Therum was now suffering from the new found confidence that the Forerunners were feeling from finally gaining the upper hand after a millennium of total galactic war. The moment the Forerunners entered the Knossos System their scanners detected the lack of planetary shields over Therum's oceans. The Forerunners saw this as an opportunity to possibly lighten the heavy casualties which they already knew they were going to endure.

Every battle was the same. Hundreds of forerunner ships were lost to bring down one human ship; dozens of forerunner soldiers were lost to bring down one human soldier. In an effort to reduce losses as much as possible, the Forerunners ignored the human fleet that was cutting through them like hot steel through butter and concentrated fire on the oceans. The unshielded planet was devastated, reduced from a lush garden world into a fiery hell-hole. Oceans of water turned into oceans of lava. The tectonic plates shifted as the planet's crust was shattered by particle cannons punching holes straight through the planet's core. The atmosphere was ignited and the resulting firestorm destroyed the planet's defense platforms, providing an opening for the Forerunners to land an invasion force. What would've taken the Forerunners decades was achieved in years due to this advantage.

Therum had a large influx of refugees from the Second Human-Forerunner War, and the evacuation of the increased civilian population was only 38% complete. The evacuation would have been completed a long time ago, but the relentless orbital bombardment had been scrambling the planet's teleportation grid, causing it to malfunction.

"The evacuation portal just went offline again!"

"Shit! What happened!?" Sergeant Alexandria, a revered Titan super soldier and the daughter of the legendary Lord of Admirals Forthencho, blasted two Forerunners with her purple-fire multipurpose particle weapon system, disrupting their atomic and molecular structure, shattering them like glass, as her AI Companion Nikias alerted her to the situation. Forerunner combat skin offered no protection from human weapons, but that was irrelevant during the war since the Forerunners outnumbered the Humans over a thousand to one.

"Bombardment destroyed the slipspace generators, and over half of the repair crew was killed in the explosion." Alexandria could tell from Nikias's voice that he had lost hope. "There's nothing more we can do. This is it."

"Don't say that. Don't you ever say that."

Humans never gave up, and they sure as hell never surrendered. They fought, they sacrificed, and if there was a way to survive, then they would find it, but not this time.

"The battle is lost, you know tha- Alert! Enemy forces are converging on the evac bunker! The bastards must have noticed the loss of power!"

"Dammit." Alexandria cursed under her breath. She knew that any attempts to save them would be in vain, but that wasn't what she needed to do. She needed to make sure that none of them were captured, or else the Forerunners would download their memories and potentially gain dangerous insight into human technology. She knew that none of them would ever surrender, but human civilian grade weapons and armor were more balanced with the Ecumene's arsenal. The Forerunners would be able to take them down with non-lethal weapons. She could not allow that to happen.

Taking a moment to think, as well as blast six more Forerunners, Alexandria opened her neural link to the twelve men and women fighting along side her behind a improvised barricade of cars and debris that they had thrown together with psychokinesis. She had lost her original fireteam of three other Titans, and had now been with these new brave warriors for the past eight years of the battle, forming an effective team that stuck it to the Forerunners both on the ground and in space. When the Forerunners landed a new wave of reinforcements, her team was there. When the Forerunners started to form a staging area on one of the other planets in the system, her team was there. When the Forerunners brought in a new dreadnaught that needed boarding, her team was there. When the Forerunners needed to regroup, they spent all of their moments of pause recuperating together. They were more than a fire team, they were a family. Four of them were civilians, having received only the basic military training that was mandatory for all citizens of the Imperium before they went into the civilian occupations of their choosing. They were especially brave, and Alexandria admired them for making it this far. She knew this would be the last time she ever saw them. There was so much that she wanted to say, but there was no time. Every second she spent saying her goodbyes would be a second spent letting civilians be captured.

_"We can't lose this sector, not now. I'm heading to the evac bunker. Hold the line for as long as you can. Give these slit nose freaks everything you've got. Good luck. I'm...proud of you, all of you."_

She received several protests. None of them wanted to part ways with the woman who had become more like a mother to them than a commanding officer. Alexandria had become a symbol not just to those under her command, but to all of humanity. She was well known in the galactic community for her role in the First Human-Forerunner War. She became known as the Savior of Humanity for her heroics during the Human-Flood War and the Second Human-Forerunner War, the period that became known by historians as the Dark Times. She was the light that shone defiantly during humanity's darkest hour. She lived up to the meaning of her name. Alexandria: defender of mankind.

_"That's an order. No arguments, I have to go. I'm sorry."_

Alexandria uploaded a digital copy of her and Nikias's consciousness to the teams mini battlenet in order to leave them with leadership. And with that, she was off. There was a terrible knot in her stomach and throat, as well as tears streaking down her face. Every fiber in her body wanted to fight and die with her team, her family.

A few steps into the direction of the bunker she stopped. Her eyes dropped to the ground and she almost turned around. Nikias was in equally hurt to leave the team behind, but he managed to weakly urge Alexandria to continue. "You know what we have to do."

"I know."

Alexandria raised her head high and charged off to the bunker as fast as she could.

A/N: Material that either contradicts canon, or is not clear whether or not it contradicts canon will be identified in author's notes.

In Halo canon, there is only one confirmed conflict between the Humans and Forerunners. In my story there are two.


	2. Chapter 2

One Long Nap

**LOCATION: MILKY WAY/ARTEMIS TAU/KNOSSOS SYSTEM/THERUM**

**DATE (IMPERIUM CALENDER): 22-10-51618**

**ONGOING EVENT: SIEGE OF KNOSSOS, SECOND HUMAN-FORERUNNER WAR**

All around, the remnants of a once great city could be seen, reduced to a shadow of its former glory. Skyscrapers had fallen, roads had erupted, and the sky was a dark clouded red. All around, the streets were covered in craters and filled with charred and shattered corpses, along with chunks of combat vehicles that had been destroyed or shot down. The city had been turned into an island, surrounded by raging firestorms of lava on all sides, and in some parts of the city, where the bombing had been severe, fissures could be seen erupting in the distance.

Alexandria had been sprinting for 12 miles down what remained of a main road when a beam of hard light smashed into her back. Even though the beam did not drop her shields, the massive kinetic force would've still turned her into red mist were she a semi-evolved human. Being a fully evolved, genetically engineered, human cyborg super soldier, she was merely knocked down face first from being caught off guard. She immediately made a short range teleportation to some cover behind the front half of a main battle tank using Psychokinesis and began returning fire. Nikias sent the combat data directly to her brain at the speed of light, rather than take the time to say it verbally.

"_Ten grunts, one Promethean.__"_

_ "One Promethean? I thought they fought in packs."_

_ "Me too. Maybe they're just spread thin right now."_

The ten forerunner regulars died within moments of the engagement. Alexandria spent extra time out of cover, pushing her shields until they fell in order to get in extra shots. The Promethean did not wait to be gunned down, and instead closed the distance between him and Alexandria with teleportation, knowing that his best hope of defeated the Titan was melee combat.

The Promethean reappeared behind Alexandria and went for a rear-naked chokehold. The hold would immobilize Alexandria's shoulders, allowing the Promethean to break her neck with a violent jerking motion. Alexandria foresaw this with her sixth sense and knocked him back with a reverse elbow strike to the chest. The Titan spun around as the Promethean rolled back, both of them materializing their melee weapons. The Promethean drew his pure energy melee weapon. He activated it and a scimitar was emitted, a weapon that was originally designed in the old days to attack enemies while riding a horse, but was also a quick and defensive weapon that was useful if you didn't want to trade massive blows with a overpowered enemy. He then bought up his forearm and generated a hard light buckler, a small shield meant for deflecting attacks rather than absorbing them. He was preparing to be on the defensive of a overwhelming assault. Alexandria drew a glaive, an effective weapon against an opponent wielding a shield. The handle portion of the glaive was hard light while the customized black and purple hilt of her energy melee weapon fixed on the end, generating the blade.

"Need any help?"

"I think I can take him."

She immediately thrusted her weapon into the side of his shield, attempting to move it out of the way, opening her opponent to a follow up thrust attack. The Promethean parried downward with the buckler, forcing Alexandria to bend over. He then countered with an upwards diagonal slash to her face. Alexandria leaned back as fast as she could, narrowly dodging his attack and sending an uppercut of her own with the butt of her weapon at the Promethean's chin. He used the momentum of his failed slash to spin back on his right foot. Alexandria, who still had her glaive raised over her left shoulder with the blade facing backwards from her uppercut, brought the butt of her weapon forward in a quick jab to the Forerunner's face. The jab made contact, and Alexandria wasted no time in continuing her assault. She brought her glaive down from over her shoulder in a slashing motion. The Promethean continued to spin backwards, this time using the momentum from the painful blow he had just received, dodging the Titan's slash and unintentionally turning his back to his attacker. Alexandria immediately dematerialized her weapon and grabbed the Promethean from behind, putting him in a rear-naked choke while also stabbing a micro smart charge into his shoulder. The Promethean struggled to remove the charge, but was unable to focus due to the enormous pressure that the merciless Titan was exerting upon him. The charge quickly traveled throughout to his body, plowing through everything in its path before reaching his heart. The Promethean's body twitched, indicating that the charge had reached it target and detonated. Alexandria released the Promethean and left him where he lay. Alive, but not for long.

"Well, that was fast."

"You've been watching too many movies that glorify sword fights, Nikias. Real bladed combat rarely lasts for more than 30 seconds."

"True. The bunker isn't far, lets go."

The bunker was only 30 miles away, a relatively short distance for the Titan super soldier, who could sprint non-stop at speeds of over 100 miles an hour unassisted. Adding Psychokinesis, powered armor, and cybernetics into the equation, Alexandria was able to propel her body even faster, reaching speeds of over 200 miles an hour. Despite this massive speed, she was still traveling very slow in comparison to modern day civilian transit, which usually crossed distances at speeds of up to mach 10, which was around 7700 miles an hour, depending on the temperature and altitude. Sometimes people didn't even bother getting in vehicles, instead choosing to just teleport from point A to point B using the planet's teleportation grid, a grid that was currently inactive.

When they arrived at the entrance to the bunker, Nikias accessed the camera feeds and found that the civilians were still holding their own against the Forerunners, using the exposed hallways to their advantage, but they were being overrun, and fast. The civilian grade phaser weapons were not mowing down the Forerunners like military grade particle weapons. Phased energy combined the burn of superheated plasma with the penetration of projectiles, essentially injecting their targets with plasma rather than splashing it over the surface. They were deadly, but not deadly enough for this fight.

The Forerunners did not know by who, but they knew that the Humans had been exhausted in a recent war. They saw this as an opportunity to eliminate their only rival. The Forerunners suffered unimaginable casualties in every engagement due to Humanity's superior weaponry, courtesy of the Precursors, but the Forerunners were infinitely more advanced than the Humans in every other aspect of technology, and they knew that their their superior numbers and industrial power would eventually outlast their enemies. The piles of Forerunner corpses showed their immense commitment to crushing Humanity once and for all, no matter the cost.

To make matters worse, Alexandria and Nikias could see on the feeds that the Forerunners had brought in a War Sphinx.

"Shit."

"Hey, at least it's not one of those crazy Double Sphinxes."

Nikias's attempt to look at the bright side of things did manage to make Alexandria feel a little more optimistic about their chances, but not much. Together, the two of them had taken on single War Sphinxes before and come out on top, but they could only do so if they had an edge. The Humans had lost all of their factories and were no longer able to mass produce mechs and drones for ground support on the front lines, leaving all of the Forerunner's war machines unchallenged.

Alexandria charged into the bunker as fast as she could, avoiding forerunner and human corpses all the way. The civilians had been pushed back deep into the bunker, no doubt a result of the War Sphinx's devastating power. Whenever the Forerunners encountered a new species and moved in to dismantle their military, they had been known to use a Double Sphinx to subjugate an entire continent, although they usually managed to demilitarize a species before it even left its home world by reprogramming the entire race with geas, minimizing bloodshed.

Traveling through the plain bunker with nothing but arrows, room numbers, and hallway designations for design, Alexandria and Nikias reached the nearest hallway where hard light and phased energy were streaming back and forth. She immediately began tearing into the enemy's back ranks, setting her particle weapon to beam-mode. Eight seconds and 24 Forerunners later, a door behind Alexandria opened and revealed the War Sphinx.

_"Damn architects, they should have made this place smaller."_

The Forerunner foot soldiers had now all been eliminated, and Alexandria ordered the civilians through her neural link to go and reinforce another line, leaving her to deal with the War Sphinx alone.

"_Well at least it's not slaughtering the civilians anymore."_

_ "I agree. Hey, Nikias."_

_ "Yeah?"_

_ "I could use some help this time."_

_ "So now you need me, huh. Well, I'm afraid my schedule just filled up."_

_ "Get your ass out here."_

_ "Oh, all right."_

Nikias left Alexandria's body and took on a physical form. Nikias's avatar was just a standard issue Imperium male suit of powered armor. Like Alexandria, he did not bother with customizations. The only "customized" aspects of their armor were the LED lights. Alexandria's were purple, and Nikias's were blue.

The War Sphinx had backed up into an atrium at the end of the hallway, leaving Alexandria and Nikias in the exposed space, forcing them to follow. The hallway was a barrel, and they did not want to be the fish.

The Forerunner in the command cabin spoke over the War Sphinx's speakers.

"Alexandria, daughter of Forthencho. I knew you would come, and I am pleased to have the honor of seeing to your demise personally."

Alexandria recognized that voice. Her suspicions were confirmed when the command cabin opened to reveal its operator. It was Shadow-of-Sundered-Star's eldest son, Caster-of-Blinding-Light. They had killed each other many times, but Alexandria had always been within range of an uncorrupted battlenet that was able to beam her consciousness into a new body, and Caster had always had a working durance.

"I thought you'd be participating in the Battle of Charum Hakkor."

"I was, until I discovered that you were not there."

"Aww. You came all the way here just for me? That's so sweet."

Forerunners were very formal, especially with other species who they all deemed less superior, and Alexandria knew how much she annoyed him with her sarcasm and playfulness.

Caster let out a disgusted sigh.

"I've had enough of you. I've had enough of all of you."

Caster began priming the War Sphinx's weapons for combat.

"Besides, Charum Hakkor is finished. It has five more years at best."

Alexandria and Nikias both clenched their fists at that statement, feeling the hatred bubbling inside them. While they had not heard any news from Charum Hakkor other than that it was under attack, they knew Caster was probably telling the truth. Humanity was finished. They had lost, and there was no pretending they still had even the slightest chance of victory.

"Now, to the matter at hand. I am going to make you pay for the millennium of war that your kind has plagued us with."

Caster's tone changed from serious to furious.

"There is no escape for you now! No precious battlenet to save you! You are trapped! You are vermin! All of your kind, filth! You have disgraced the Mantle, and the galaxy will be a better place without you! NOW DIE!"

"Um, excuse me." Nikias, who had been quiet thus far, decided this was a good time to let the overconfident forerunner know of his imminent demise.

"WHAT!?"

"Just thought I should let you know that while you two were reminiscing, I managed to corrupt your durance."

Caster checked to see if the scum was telling the truth. He was.

"That's... not possible."

"I also disabled you Sphinx's shields and memory banks."

Just as Nikias finished informing Caster of the "modifications," the War Sphinxes shields dropped.

Before Caster could issue another retort, Alexandria struck his Sphinx with a dangerously powerful Psychokinetic lightning attack that normally would have given her a seizure had the homeostasis regulator in her armor not compensated for the overload of electrical activity in her brain.

Nikias jumped onto the left leg of the ten by twenty meter beast and stabbed into the side of its knee with an electro hard light blade that he forged as a gauntlet over his right forearm, temporarily disabling the joint, causing the Sphinx to drop down to its right knee.

The only way the were going to defeat such an enemy was one of three ways. The first way was heavy weapons, of which they had none. In fact, they didn't have any firearms which could harm the War Sphinx. The second way was ground support. That was obviously not going to happen either. The third and only currently relevant way was to bring it down by attacking the legs, then go for its vital systems with melee weapons and precision explosives. After the mech was disabled, Caster would be vulnerable. Until it was disabled, he was invincible.

Immediately after Nikias disabled the Sphinxes left knee, he was swatted by the beast's tail, sending him flying towards the wall for a sickening impact. Before Nikias impacted the wall however, Alexandria grabbed him with PK and flung him onto the Sphinx's right leg to repeat his last attack.

Her assist left Alexandria open to a blast from the Sphinx's powerful tail cannon. She managed to move far enough to the side to where the shot only threw her to her back and dropped her shields, rather than erasing her from existence. As a soldier, she had her nervous system modified so that she would not suffer traditional pain from negative effects on her body such as injuries, while still being able to experience positive stimuli such as a pleasing scent. Instead, she received data that was displayed through her HUD indicating that the shot had broken several ribs and bruised a large portion of her chest muscles. Even though her injuries did not cause her pain, they would still impair her ability to perform. In other words, if she were to lose an arm, while she would not feel any pain, she would still have lost an arm. Her self-repair systems would do the best they could, but they could only do so much during combat while injuries were still being inflicted.

Alexandria quickly got back to her feet as she sensed a rocket charging towards her position. She turned back to the Sphinx after escaping the blast radius and saw its wings aim towards her, revealing ten massive auto cannons. She moved as fast as she could to avoid the heavy fire while her shields recharged.

Nikias had now disabled both knees of the Sphinx, but that did nothing to slow it down. The destroyed kneecaps detached and the dangling forelegs moved up to reinforce the thighs, making a shorter, but no less ferocious death machine.

Caster again sent the tail at Nikias in a whipping motion, but this time Nikias grabbed on to it. Alexandria used Psychokinesis to slow down the Sphinx's tail as much as possible, allowing Nikias to maintain his grip. A directed concussive blast from the Sphinx stopped Alexandria from providing further assistance by slamming her headfirst into a wall.

Nikias stuck a charge to the base of the tail. It was a good thing he managed to disable the Sphinx's shields before the fight. Had he not, the explosion he was about to cause would have been deflected. Nikias was thrown off of the tail by an electrical shock wave from the beast, a function that was added specifically for knocking off attackers who had latched on to the Sphinx. Thankfully, the charge had a small coating of lead strong enough to negate the EMP effects. Unfortunately, Nikias did not have a similar coating to protect himself. He was unable to land gracefully and ready to fight due to the shock wave scrambling his digital mind. He was just about to be crushed under the Sphinx's heel when Alexandria recovered from the concussive blast and tackled the beast's leg with all her might, moving it just enough to avoid Nikias.

Caster moved his War Spinx a few steps away and launched homing missiles from its back that raced towards the two humans for an instant kill. The disoriented Nikias was not able to scramble their guidance to avoid them altogether, but Alexandria managed to use PK in time to send the missiles far enough off course that the two were able to survive the violent explosion by forging hard light shields, protecting themselves from being disintegrated. Even though they survived the initial blast, they were still thrown violently by the blast wave when their hard light shields broke from absorbing too much damage.

Alexandria knew from her and Nikias's neural link that he had planted a charge in the Sphinx's tail. She also knew that he was still disoriented from an electrical attack he had recently received. Being a synthetic, he was suffering from the effects more so than she would.

Not waiting for Nikias to fully regain his senses and detonate the charge himself, Alexandria used their connection to detonate it herself. The result did not completely destroy the Sphinx's tail, it merely blew it off, leaving over half of it still intact.

Just as the War Sphinx had adapted to the damage done to its legs, rather than just discard them altogether, the remainder of the tail attached itself to the front of the beast's chest, forming a new main cannon. It was smaller and less powerful, but it was still overkill when used as an anti-infantry weapon. A direct hit from any of the Sphinx's weapons would erase a foot soldier from existence, making speed crucial to this fight.

The adaptation of the broken tail took longer than that of the legs, allowing the two humans a moment of recovery. They struggled to get back to their feet as their self-repair systems were overloading in an attempt to heal all of the broken bones, bruised muscles, and internal bleeding inflicted upon them by the War Sphinx's devastating blows.

"Nikias, get up. We're not done yet."

Nikias forced himself to his feet, holding his head to maintain balance.

"That thing hits fucking hard."

"I know."

Alexandria and Nikias regained their composure as the Sphinx finished its adaptation. Caster was very aware of their current condition, and decided that it was a good time to issue a taunt, his voice booming over the War Sphinx's speakers.

"Prepare yourselves. This is the end."

The two humans stood defiantly, prepared to fight to the very end. It was in their nature. Even when all hope was lost, they would stand, and they would fight.

The bunker started trembling from orbital bombardment, and Nikias did a quick scan of the bunker's structural integrity, sharing his thoughts with Alexandria.

_"This place is about to collapse."_

That gave them an idea.

_"Are you thinking what I'm thinking?"_

_ "Yeah."_

_ "Oh, right."_

Caster opened fire with every weapon emplacement on the War Sphinx. To Alexandria and Nikias it seemed as if a star was coming at them.

While Alexandria formed a dome shape of force with PK in an attempt to funnel as much of the incoming fire away as she could, Nikias forged a hard light shield around them, drawing whatever power he could from himself and Alexandria.

When the blaze of blinding light reached the two humans, almost half of the energy was deflected away, draining Alexandria of what little strength her body had left as her homeostasis regulator failed. While she had not been casting PK attacks continuously for the majority of the fight, she had been using PK to increase her speed. After her last display of unnatural Psychokinetic power, the regulator overloaded, and Alexandria's body simply dropped.

All of the pure death which Alexandria was able to deflect away from her and Nikias slammed into the walls, causing the bunker to become unstable and begin collapsing around them. The rest of Caster's attack which was not deflected slammed into Nikias's overcharged hard light shield, breaking it almost instantly, and sending the two flying.

Alexandria was now barely conscious, and Nikias was in danger of shutting down from absorbing some of the fire that made it past the hard light shield.

Caster was no fool, and he knew that if he remained much longer to confirm the death of his nemesis then the bunker would likely become his tomb. Nikias, who was still coherent, despite the beating he had just endured, manged to prop himself up on his right elbow to see that Caster was attempting to flee.

"Oh no you don't. If we go, you're going with us."

Nikias got to his hands and knees and crawled to Alexandria. Accessing her sub-space pocket through their neural link, Nikias pulled out Alexandria's weapon system. He took aim at the ceiling of the passageway Caster was heading down and fired a continuous beam of accelerated particles, causing it to collapse and cover the Sphinx in debris.

Kneeling beside her, Nikias cradled Alexandria while sending her weapon back into her sub-space pocket. She was conscious,but incoherent, her head bobbing around like she was struggling to stay awake. Nikias gaze left Alexandria, and he began to feel a sense of hopelessness as the world crumbled around them.

"_I have to save her."_

Nikias reached out to the digital realm, searching for a wireless connection to try and find something, anything that might save Alexandria. Many of the bunker's cameras were still intact and active, but many of them also had obstructed views. Combining what little visual data he gathered from the cameras with the data he was receiving from the various other devices still intact throughout the bunker, Nikias was able to locate a single remaining prison capsule.

A prison capsule did the same thing as a stasis pod, keeping a single individual in suspended animation, only the occupant was kept fully aware. While in a stasis pod, an individual would simply enter the pod and go to sleep. In a prison capsule, the individual would be broken down on a molecular level and fused with the capsule. The capsule was nothing but a simple sliver sphere in appearance that could change its size for easy transport or storage. While it was highly resistant to damage, just putting her in the sphere would not be enough. If it remained on Therum, it would undoubtedly be either destroyed or discovered. Nikias would have to digitize the sphere and beam it to another facility not in the Knossos System. There were two problems with this. One, only a quantum entanglement communicator would be able to beam Alexandria off world without being detected and traced, and while Nikias could see one in the room with the capsule, there was no guarantee it was functional. Two, Human Space was ravaged by both the Flood and the Forerunners. The chances that Nikias would be able to locate a secure facility to beam Alexandria to were very slim, but he had to try. He could not die knowing that he had not done everything he could to try and save his friend.

Nikias helped Alexandria up and slung her right arm around the back of his neck, holding it at the wrist to keep her in place. He also wrapped his left arm around her waist to provide her with more support and balance while they moved through the collapsing bunker on their way to the capsule. Fortunately, it was on the same floor, and relatively close to their current position, but they would still have to walk quite a distance through collapsing passageways that would force them to find a different route, as well as falling debris that would crush them flat. Wasting no time, Nikias began guiding Alexandria through the bunker.

They were about to leave the atrium through through the hallway that offered the most direct route to the prison capsule, and almost as if on cue the hallway collapsed. Without stopping to even acknowledge their misfortune, Nikias started down the next hallway to the right, struggling to keep himself steady as the bunker trembled from bombardment.

The ceilings of a few of the rooms along the hallway collapsed and shot out their doors at high speeds, some of which smacked into the two humans with considerable force, testing their will to push forward. The next atrium at the end of the hallway, where they would have turned left, completely collapsed a few moments before they entered. Nikias entered the nearest room on the lefts side of the hallway, hoping the exit to the other side was still accessible. It was, but as they moved through the room, Nikias could see that the ceiling was about to cave in. With this sudden realization, Nikias's fear of failure gave him that unexplainable spring in his step that he needed to exit the room just before the ceiling gave out.

Now in the hallway Nikias originally wanted to be in, he started to guide the half-conscious Alexandria back down in the direction they came from on their way to the room with the prison capsule. When they reached the room, Nikias found the door to be jammed. A quick scan revealed it to be blocked from the other side. Nikias set Alexandria down and placed his last charge on the door. All hope depended on the charge being able to blow open the door, without caving in the room.

Closing his optics and cutting off his sensors, Nikias detonated the charge. When he reopened his awareness, he found that his plan had payed off. Without missing a beat, he immediately picked Alexandria back up and charged into the room. A quick scan of the ceiling's integrity revealed that the room might have a few more minutes before it caved in.

The capsule was floating in the center of the room, ready for a person to be thrown into it and transported off world. It was a cell for prisoners, and the Imperium was not very tolerant of criminals. A person could literally be tossed at the capsule, and having no time to be graceful, that's exactly what Nikias did.

"Sorry about that, Alexa."

Nikias placed a hand on the console controlling the quantum entangler. Transferring himself directly into the entangler's systems, Nikias began searching for an intact facility to which he could send Alexandria. He found one. Literally, he found only one. It was on Kopis, Makhaira's largest moon. He immediately sent the commands to the entangler.

_Send to: Kopis Facility. _

_ Location: Milky Way / Hades Nexus / Hoplos System / Makhaira / Kopis._

It was done, the capsule was on its way. Nikias had completed he task, he had saved Alexandria. He left the console to watch as the capsule departed with his friend inside.

Unfortunately, the entangler was locked to only allow the capsule passage; Nikias could not go body felt cold and weighed down, as if his stomach had been filled a heavy block of ice.

"Goodbye, my friend, and good luck."

Nikias could see the capsule turn into individual lines of code and beam off the planet across the digital realm. Now alone on the crumbling planet, Nikias closed off his awareness and awaited his fate.

A/N: It is revealed that the Ur-Didact (Shadow-of-Sundered-Star) has children, and that they were all killed fighting the Humans, but there is no other info about them. Caster-of-Blinding-Light is, the Ur-Didact's eldest son, is non-canon.


	3. Chapter 3

A/N: I debated added this timeline or not, since I originally had planned for the story to focus only on Alexandria, and she obviously doesn't know what has happened in the last 100,000 years, but I am adding the perspective of Titan Fireteam Dinomite, and I couldn't just have them pop out of nowhere. Small changes were made to the first two chapters that you probably wouldn't notice on a second read.

The Shit That Happens

**LOCATION: DARK SPACE/ISV _LAST HAVEN_**

**DATE (IMPERIUM CALENDER): 8-12-51621 AR (After Reunification)**

The stasis field dissipated and Boss, leader of Fireteam Dinomite, opened his eyes and stretched out his arms and legs. At first he didn't realize he was in a stasis pod; he didn't realize he'd been asleep a millennium; and it certainly didn't cross his mind that his civilization had just been burnt to the ground, and that he was one of the last seven billion humans left. Humans had abandoned the archaic cryogenic freezing technique long ago, and Boss awoke in a soft warm bed, feeling well rested rather than feeling sick like he had just been defrosted. He was so comfortable in his little pod wearing just his standard issue black compression shorts that for a brief moment, he thought he was just about to wake up to another average day in the Imperium. Then, as he looked up and saw the bottoms of stasis pods, it hit him. He sat up in his bed and darted his eyes all around, hoping to find himself back in his room, but all he saw was pods, pods, and more pods.

The stasis fields all began dissipating and he could see other humans also wearing just their standard issue compression undergarments waking up in various emotional states. Some cried, others vomited, and some just stared. They all must have been coming to the same realization as he had. The war was over. Humanity had lost, and they were chosen to live on while everyone else was sacrificed.

Boss suddenly felt short of breath. The other members of Dinomite: Fixer, Sev, and Scorch, all sat up in the pods next to his and exchanged glances of varied expressions.

Felicia, code named Fixer, a green eyed, olive skinned woman with her dark brown hair in a ponytail, remained stoic and seemingly unmoved by emotion. The cybernetic facial tattoos of her culture burned a evil red glow. The first streaked down the right side of her face like an open slice wound, and the second surrounded the outside of her left eye like a twisted hook. She possessed a sinister look, for a equally sinister woman, and she showed nothing but anger hatred on her face, not despair.

Samir, code named Sev, a red eyed, light skinned man with short, wavy brown hair kept his head low and his eyes clamped shut, attempting to shut out his emotions. He succeeded in his attempts and opened his eyes to face Benjiro, hoping to find some form solace in his leader, but the orange eyed, light skinned man with a goatee and short black hair that pointed up slightly in the front was just as distraught as he was.

Samson, code named Scorch, a yellow eyed, dark skinned bald man with a black goatee vented his frustrations through a particularly excessive usage of curse words, and he elicited many death stares from other humans who chose to mourn in a more quiet fashion.

Knowing you were going to lose everything and actually losing everything elicited two different emotional responses from humans. When they were losing, humans would still continue to fight, even when there was no hope for victory. They fought because it was all they had left. Now, they had nothing left, nothing left to fight for. Their people were gone, their friends were dead, and their homes were destroyed. All they had left was the realization of defeat, and that realization hit them hard.

"Oh god."

Boss fell back into his bed and opened his journal that he didn't write in regularly; only when there was something he really felt was worth writing.

51,621 AR

FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK... (crying) We lost. (crying)... Close the damn journal.

51,621 AR

Can't. I just can't. I'm just walking around like zombies, just dragging their feet to the next task. No one talks. No one can talk. Just work. My duties are all I have left. I just wanna kill those bastards. I wanna make them pay, pay for what they did to us. I want to fucking kill them! I just, I just... wanna wrap my hands around one of their fucking throats and choke the life out of them! I wanna kill them! I WANNA KILL THEM ALL, THOSE BASTARDS! ALL OF THEM DEAD! I WANNA BURN EVERY LAST WORLD, SO THEY CAN FEEL THE WAY I FEEL! THEY NEED TO FEEL THE WAY WE FEEL! THE NEED TO KNOW WHAT IT'S LIKE! WHAT THEY'VE DONE!... (crying) I just, I just. (crying)

51,621 AR

The Forerunners set up primitive humans on installations like animals in a zoo and implanted them with those gea mind fuck programs. Makes me sick.

51,621 AR

The San 'Shyuum have been quarantined to their home system, never to leave. That's the least they deserve. I can't believe they surrendered. If I could, I'd kill them myself.

51,622 AR

Things are getting better. I still don't see any smiles or hear laughter, but at least people are talking again.

58,978 AR

The Forerunners just started demilitarizing themselves! They're reducing the Warrior-Servant rate and replacing it with these superweapons called Halos. I still haven't heard anything about what these Halo things do, but if they can make a entire military obsolete, they must be pretty fucked up.

60,372 AR

**Interstellar War Update:**

Holy shit! The Flood are back! Please slit noses, don't fuck this up.

60,398 AR

**Interstellar War Update:**

The Food seem a lot more ferocious than we fought them. Guess they hate Forerunners too. A part of me wishes we had the power to intervene, but we're still too few right now. All we can do right now is hope for the best. Another part of me is happy to sit back and watch the Forerunners burn, but I know that could come back to bite us in the ass.

60,421 AR

**Interstellar War Update:**

The Forerunners are losing to the Flood... big fucking time.

60,599 AR

**Interstellar War Update:**

Holy shit! The Flood started using Precursor constructs to like, fuck up space and shit! The Forerunners can't even travel around in slipspace anymore! They even destroyed the Greater Ark!... I just wish there was something I could do.

60,624 AR

**Interstellar War Update:**

I don't believe it. The Forerunners fired the Halo Array.

60,624 AR

I'm angry. I know they didn't have any other choice, and we couldn't have made a difference at all, but still, they killed everyone. Everyone if the fucking galaxy! Gone! Just gone! Things have never looked so bleak.

60,624 AR

Did I mention the stupid Halo Array destroyed the legacy of the Precursors? It literally shattered everything they ever built, everything they left behind for us, their children. Bastards!

60,625 AR

The Forerunners are reseeding the galaxy and placing caches of their tech all over the place. Rumor has it they're actually preparing to leave. Leave like, go live in some other galaxy. Fucked up, huh? There's a big debate going on right now about whether we should just leave the Forerunners alone, or go and finish them off. A lot of angry people want payback for what they did to us, me included. It's just that, these aren't the same Forerunners we fought. A lot of the Warrior-Servants are gone, replaced with "Builder Security." Now it's mostly just all those Builders and Lifeworkers now. So, Forerunner or not, we'd basically just be butchering civilians.

60,625 AR

It's been decided. We're just gonna keep an eye on the Forerunners. It they go starting shit, we'll put 'em down, but for now, their safe. At least, their safe from us. I didn't hear anything about going to help them if they ever get into trouble. I don't wanna commit genocide against them, but I don't think I could bear the thought of ever coming to their aid either. I think it'd be funny to just go pay them a visit. Show up with a big ass invasion fleet and be like, "Hey assholes, remember us?" I bet they'd shit their pants.

60,626 AR (100,000 BCE)

The Forerunners left the Milky Way. They're calling it the _Great Journey_. They were smart. They didn't use those special crystals that make them travel through slipspace so fast, the crystals that always allowed us to track them.

60,629 AR

Happy New Year's and all that shit! Not much to talk about for a while now. We've started expanding, building our own little mini galaxy (some people are actually calling it the Mini Way), and setting up monitoring devices all over the Milky Way.

92,634 AR (68,000 BCE)

Almost forgot I had this thing. It's more of a coping mechanism than an actual journal. I don't really talk a whole lot. Anyway, the Milky Way is firing back up. The Protheans became a space faring race and discovered some space station their calling the Citadel. There's also a bunch of these relay things all over the place now. Don't know where they came from, but they make awesome sling shots, and the Protheans are using them to travel across the galaxy at insane speeds.

93,214 AR (67,420 BCE)

All of our investigations into the origins of these relays have turned up nothing. The Protheans don't know either. Makes me wonder. Their not Forerunner or Precursor, and they just popped up over night. We're staying hidden for now, finally starting to get back on our feet. Things are going pretty well.

94,322 AR (66,312 BCE)

I've got good news and bad news. Bad news is, we haven't found a way to remove the geas from those primitive humans on Erda, yet. Good news is, there's no chance of the corruption spreading to us if some perv decides to screw one of them. Our scientists also managed to disable the remote control feature of the geas. Now they'll only suffer from stunted development, but not direct slavery.

98,845 AR (61,789 BCE)

So this is weird. We found another Erda, with another human civilization. Didn't see that one coming. They have geas too, but not they same ones the other humans got. Their geas don't allow them to be remote controlled, but still stunt their growth as a species. Our guys are still trying to find a way to get rid of the geas all together.

98,978 AR (61,656 BCE)

Despite all the shit that's going on in the galaxy, I'm actually starting to feel a lot better. Physically, you know.

99,108 AR (61,526 BCE)

Those Halo superweapons are still just sitting around the galaxy, waiting for some asshole to come along and fire one up. We blew one of them up, and a new one appeared in its place a while later from the Ark. We've got rapid response drone fleets waiting in deep space not far from each of the rings, ready to move in with deadly force against anyone who discovers them. Some thought we should set up outposts on the rings, but so far we've just sent the drones.

111,234 AR (49,400 BCE)

These new Protheans are dicks. They're becoming more and more like the Forerunners; enslaving races they can control, and destroying those they can't. They're like fucking hypocrites. Their minds naturally rejected geas, so the Forerunners were going to exterminate, but we saved them. Now, they're doing exactly what the Forerunners tried to do to them. I understand these aren't the same Protheans, but still, come on.

111,927 AR (48,707 BCE)

**Interstellar War Update:**

We've begun mobilizing for war with the Protheans. It's our duty as the true holders of the Mantle, placed upon us by our creators. The Protheans are in the middle of a war with these Zha'til guys right now, the Metacon War they're calling it. It's the perfect time to take action against them. I just hope we don't turn into another version of the Forerunners. It's like that one guy said, "If you gaze long enough into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you."

112,828 AR (48,000 BCE)

**Interstellar War Update:**

So, we were just about to take down the Prothean Empire, when these cuttlefish robots show up out of nowhere and start tearing shit up. About 50,000 years ago, before we encountered the Forerunners, our civilization underwent a series of technological dark ages. We became scattered across many worlds, cut off from one another. We even lost the location of Erda. Most of the records about what happened back then have been lost, but from what little we have found, we discovered that we fought a war with a synthetic race we called the Preservers. We won, but at great cost. The legends say they tried to exterminate us (get in line), so we fought, we sacrificed, and we exterminated them. Now we think one of the original Preservers survived and built another army of smaller, less powerful Preservers. Of course, we have no proof that's actually what happened, but it makes sense since there's only one Preserver left that matches the descriptions in the legends (the big one with the yellow eyes and bad ass guns).

112,929 AR (47,899 BCE)

There's been a lot of debate going on. Everyone agrees we should stop the Preservers. Only problem is, we can't. At first, when we saw their reduced capabilities during their attack on the Prothean's Citadel, we thought we could take them. But then, more and more and more of them just kept showing up. Then, more of the original Preservers showed up. We're guessing the weaker ones come in to harvest, then the tougher ones that we fought come in later to finish the job. We have no choice. They don't know we're here, and for now, we have to keep it that way.

113,003 AR (47,822 BCE)

**Interstellar War Update:**

The Protheans lost. The Preservers removed all the evidence of their existence and disappeared through the Citadel, which apparently is another relay. Some people wanted to send recon probes through the relay to see where the Preservers went, but we decided to just send a third of our nuclear stockpile through instead. We never heard from those nukes again. We're continuing to build up our forces. If the Preservers come back, we'll be ready... hopefully.

157,825 AR (3000 BCE)

My god. I don't believe this. Our former allies, the San 'Shyuum (you know the ones who abandoned us because there was no chance of victory), have begun worshiping the Forerunners because of all the Forerunner tech left behind in their home system from the Ecumene occupation. Of course these aren't the same San 'Shyuum that fought the Forerunners with us, but it's still an insult to their ancestors. I say we forgive them for surrendering and go make contact with them to reconcile our alliance. They are fucking technological geniuses after all.

158,625 AR (2200 BCE)

The San 'Shyuum have started a massive religious war (big surprise... religion). The Stoics think they should leave the Forerunner Keyship alone, while the Reformists want to study it. We have decided that if the conflict threatens their existence, we will secretly support the Reformists. The San 'Shyuum Civil War has begun.

158,725 AR (2100 BCE)

The San 'Shyuum Civil War ended when the Reformists gained control of the Keyship and blasted the Stoics capital with its main gun. The shot blew a huge chunk out of Janjur Qom which the Reformists turned into a giant mobile space station. They're calling the station High Charity.

159,887 AR (938 BCE)

**Interstellar War Update:**

The San 'Syuum made contact with the Sangheili. At first it was peaceful, but the Sangheili hold the same beliefs as the Stoics, so it gradually turned to religious war.

159,949 AR (876 BCE)

The Sangheili-San 'Syuum War is over. The Sangheili surrendered. They had no choice, the San 'Shyuum's navy was too strong and their planets were being bombed into oblivion.

159,973 AR (852 BCE)

The San 'Shyuum and Sangheili signed the Writ of Union, a treaty forming their new religious partnership they're calling the Covenant. Their gods, the Forerunners. The idiots think the _Great Journey_ refers to the firing of the Halo Array, and they're planning on a reenactment. If they ever do find the halos, which they will eventually, they will never set foot on them.

160,041 AR (784 BCE)

**Interstellar War Update:**

The Covenant made contact with the Lekgolo on Te. The Lekgolo were eating Forerunner artifacts, and the Covenant declared war to stop them. The Lekgolo won all ground engagements, but the Covenant had the navy, and orbital bombardment's one hell of a bitch. The Lekgolo have been subjugated and incorporated into the Covenant in what they're calling the Taming of the Hunters.

160,177 AR (648 BCE)

Janjur Qom was destroyed yesterday when its star collapsed. Shit happens.

160,245 AR (580 BCE)

The Milky Way is firing back up again. The Asari, a species of unknown origin, is following the same path as the Protheans. They've colonized the Citadel and are basing their technology on mass effect physics... Preserver technology. It seems this is some kind of trap the Preservers set up so they could avoid nearly being defeated like they were with us. Well, that's my guess anyway.

160,247 AR (582 BCE)

We did some digging. Turns out the Asari were a side project of the Forerunners. The slit noses took female humans and altered them so they could reproduce without males. This resulted in a non-violent human spin off. Bastards.

160,325 AR (500 BCE – 1 CE)

The Asari and Salarians have set up a galactic government. They're calling it the Citadel Council. They've made contact with the Volus, Batarians, Hanar, and Quarians and gave them all partial membership. They're kind of douche bags to the non-council races, but at least they're not slavers and exterminators. I still don't think their form of government is fair, but until they cross the line by condoning actions that the Forerunners and Protheans took, we can't in good conscious go and force them to change. We will not become the Forerunners. Their ways are their ways, and we can't just trample over them because we don't like them. If we did, there would be anarchy.

160,436 AR (389 BCE)

**Interstellar War Update:**

The Turian Unification Wars have begun. It's complicated.

161,524 AR (1 CE)

**Interstellar War Update:**

Salarians explorers made contact with the Rachni and were attacked, which is strange, because rachni are non-violent. The Rachni Wars have begun.

161,605 AR (80 CE)

**Interstellar War Update:**

Since there were no space faring warrior races in Council Space, the Salarians decided to uplift the Krogan, an incredibly violent species that the Forerunners had a very difficult time controlling. The Krogan have been travelling deep into the toxic Rachni worlds and systematically eradicating the species. We have ensured that the Rachni will survive.

161,822 AR (300 CE)

As thanks for saving their asses from the Rachni, the Council granted the Krogan a new homeworld. Their growing population is of serious concern.

162,322 (700 CE)

**Interstellar War Update:**

The Krogan annexed Lusia a while back and refused to leave. Things are heating up again. The Krogan Rebellions have begun.

162,373 (751 CE)

**Interstellar War Update:**

The Turians have entered the Krogan Rebellions and are drawing support from the Volus, their new client race. We have secretly been performing drone attacks on Krogan forces to try and give the Turians a hand.

162,418 AR (796 CE)

**Interstellar War Update:**

The Turians have been pushed back to their home system. They're making their last stand against the Krogan. We've stepped up our drone attacks, destroying entire fleets and cutting off reinforcements. The Salarians are developing a bio-weapon called the genophage. We've been looking over the specifications of the weapon. It will end the war, but it might end the Krogan as well.

162,420 AR (710 CE)

**Interstellar War Update:**

The genophage has been deployed. With our help, the Krogan are being pushed back.

162,422 AR (800 CE)

**Interstellar War Update:**

The Krogan Rebellions are over. The Krogan have been quarantined to Tuchanka, and the exploding population suppressed to a more "normal" level. Unfortunately, the genophage doesn't lower the birth-rate, it raises the infant mortality-rate. That gives it a bad taste. I hear our scientists are working on something to fix this problem.

162,526 AR (900 CE)

The Citadel Council granted the Turians full membership into their little club.

162,738 AR (1112 CE)

The Yanme'e were incorporated into the Covenant as a slave race. We're not liking how this "Covenant" is handling things.

162,846 AR (1234 CE)

We set up an outpost on Installation 01, or Beta Halo, the closest installation to the Mini Way. The small expeditionary force was attacked by Sentinels shortly after touching down. At first, it was just a few, a patrol maybe. Over time, more and more kept showing up and the small force was overrun by an army of the little bastards. We are mobilizing to invade Installation 01.

162,847 AR (1235 CE)

We invaded Installation 01, destroyed all Sentinels and Sentinel manufacturing facilities, and captured the monitor of the installation. It turns out the Halos also serve as research facilities to study the Flood. We have resumed their studies and set up more fail safes for the event of an outbreak.

162,968 AR (1342 CE)

The Covenant discovered the Kig-yar and absorbed them. The Kig-yar resisted at first, but quickly went along.

163,084 AR (1400 CE)

Rakhana, the Drell homeworld, is taking an environmental beating. The Hanar are close to Rakhana, so we've been leading the jellyfish there by letting them chase a signal.

162,579 AR (1895 CE)

**Interstellar War Update:**

The Quarians are some mean bastards. First, they created a species for forced labor, the Geth. Then, when the Geth became intelligent and started asking questions about their existence, the Quarians started shooting them on sight! The Geth are fighting back. I wish them luck, they didn't deserve this.

162,581 AR (1898 CE)

**Interstellar War Update:**

Payback's a bitch. The Quarians got their asses handed to them by the Geth. Their just wandering around on their ships now since no one will help them, and they can't colonize worlds because of their shitty immune systems. They'll find a way to survive though. I mean, we've been through worse and we're still here. I wish them luck.

162,605 AR (1921 CE)

The Geth are building this big thing that we don't know what's for. All we know is they're not expanding their territory, which makes them vulnerable to siege.

162,642 AR (1961 CE)

Those two new Human civilizations are now officially space faring.

162,701 AR (2000 CE)

The Hanar finally tracked our signal to Rakhana and are evacuating the Drell.

162,770 AR (2069 CE)

Those Humans of unknown origin have begun colonizing their Sol system. They're on their way.

162,776 AR (2075 CE)

The Mystery-Humans (that's what I'm calling them) have made their first expedition out of their Sol system. Getting shit done.

Meanwhile, the Forerunner-Humans have formed an international government. They're calling it the UEG (United Earth Government). It doesn't have a whole lot of influence right now, but it's a start.

162,781 AR (2080 CE)

The UEG Humans have begun colonizing their Sol system now too.

162,826 AR (2125 CE)

The Citadel Council sent ambassadors to Parnack, the Yahg homeworld. They made the mistake of not studying Yahg culture from a distance and abiding by their customs. They insulted the yahg they met with and were subsequently killed. Parnack has been declared off-limits by the Council.

162,838 AR (2137 CE)

The Mystery-Humans extracted helium-3 from their Saturn.

162,840 AR (2142 CE)

The Covenant discovered the Unggoy on their homeworld, Balaho. The Unggoy surrendered without incident and were incorporated into the Covenant.

162,841 AR (2143 CE)

The Mystery-Humans are building a space station beyond the orbit of Pluto. Their calling it Gagarin Station.

162,846 AR (2148 CE)

The Mystery-Humans developed FTL travel using mass effect physics.

162,847 AR (2149 CE)

The Mystery-Humans discovered the "mass relay" in their Sol system. They activated it and used it to travel to Arcturus. They have also formed a new international alliance to become their "military and exploratory spearhead." They're calling it the Systems Alliance.

162,879 AR (2151 CE)

The Systems Alliance has begun militarization. They're also building a battle station (space station armed for combat) in Arcturus.

162,880 AR (2152 CE)

The Systems Alliance has begun establishing extra-solar colonies. They're spreading out, building fleets and raising armies.

162,885 AR (2157 CE)

**Interstellar War Update:**

The Systems Alliance made hard contact with the Turian Hierarchy, shit. After the Rachni Wars, the Council outlawed the activation of any mass relay without first knowing its destination. Trouble is, it's kinda hard to find out where a relay goes if you can't even go through it. Anyway, some turians fired on civilian ships that the Alliance had contracted to chart new territory because they were attempting to activate a dormant relay. In the criminal justice system, ignorance of the law is not an excuse for breaking the law, but most species will make an exception during first contact scenarios, the Turians not included. They allowed one ship to escape and tracked it to Shanxi. The planet is now under siege.

162,885 AR (2157 CE)

**Interstellar War Update:**

The Alliance launched their counter-attack against the turians occupying Shanxi. The Alliance forces compensated for their shitty guns with superior numbers, and by exploiting the fact that it's hard for birds to compete with apes in guerrilla warfare. Most of the turians were killed, but a hundred or so were subdued and secretly transferred off world.

162,885 AR (2157 CE)

**Interstellar War Update:**

The Hierarchy is mobilizing for full-scale war against the Alliance. We may need to step in. The Alliance only has 200 warships that have never even been shot at, while the Hierarchy has a battle hardened armada standing 3000 strong. Drone fleets are in place and awaiting orders to support the Alliance.

162,885 AR (2157 CE)

**Interstellar War Update:**

The Citadel Council noticed the Hierarchy was mobilizing for war and demanded to know why. Needless to say, the Asari are sending diplomats to try and defuse the situation. Good thing too, for the Turians. The Alliance wouldn't have been able to fight the Hierarchy. The birds would've had to deal with us.

162,888 AR (2160 CE)

The Systems Alliance formed an international parliamentary government.

162,891 AR (2163 CE)

The Forerunner-Humans established the UNSC (United Nations Space Command) to eliminate rebel organizations in their Sol system.

162,893 AR (2165 CE)

The Alliance Humans have been granted an embassy on the Citadel. Their expansions into the Skyllian Verge are also causing tensions with the Batarians.

162,898 AR (2170 CE)

Batarian slavers attacked the colony of Mindoir. The Alliance responded by passing laws requiring stronger defenses for their colonies, much to the Hierarchy's dismay.

162,899 AR (2171 CE)

The Batarians closed their embassy on the Citadel in response to the Council not stopping human expansion into the Skyllian Verge. This could get ugly.

162,900 AR (2172 CE)

The Systems Alliance created its first sapient AI, Eliza. The Alliance plans to integrate AIs into their forces once they are capable of defending themselves against Hierarchy aggression. In other words, not anytime soon.

162,902 AR (2172 CE)

My team has been assigned as first responders to any extinction level threat posed to the Systems Alliance Humans, and we've been briefed on everything there is to know about their civilization.

162,904 AR (2176 CE)

The Batarian Hegemony funded pirates and criminals to attack the human colony of Elysium. The attack was repulsed by Alliance forces.

162,904 AR (2176 CE)

A civil war broke out on Anhur over the practice of slavery. The Na'hesit don't want to give up their slaves, while almost everybody else does. Unfortunately, the Na'hesit are the stronger faction with support from the Hegemony and various corporations that rely on slavery. The Anhur Defense Force is on its own for now. The Alliance is busy preparing to raid Torfan, the moon that was used as a staging area for what they're now calling the Skillian Blitz.

162,905 AR (2177 CE)

The Anhur Rebellions have spread throughout the Amun system and the Anhur Defense Force has hired the Eclipse to help them fight the Na'hesit.

162,906 AR (2178 CE)

The Alliance launched their raid on Torfan. They took heavy losses, but the enemy was eliminated. The Alliance jumped through some hoops to ensure they captured a decent number of prisoners, part of the reason they endured heavy casualties. On their way to Torfan, the Alliance forces stopped by in the Amun system and bombed Na'hesit installations on Bast, Neith, Sekhmet, and Sobek. The Anhur Rebellions are coming to a close with the abolitionists on top.

162,906 AR (2178 CE)

The Alliance has initiated the "Theshaca Raids" using information from prisoners captured on Torfan.

162,913 AR (2183 CE)

**Interstellar War Update:**

The Preservers have made another appearance. One of them attacked the human colony of Eden Prime along side the Heretics, a splinter faction of geth. The Eden Prime War has begun.

162,913 AR (2183 CE)

My team has been assigned to retrieve the Preserver's memory banks at all costs the next time it shows up. We're stuck on some stealth frigate now, just floating around the Attican Traverse, waiting for the damn thing to make an appearance. The legends say the Preservers always knew how to hide. Bastards.

A/N: In canon, Arcturus Station is a regular space station, not a battle station.

As with the official timelines, some of the BCE/CE dates are approximations.

In canon, there is no mention of the Alliance taking part in the Anhur Rebellions.

Inspirations for Fireteam Dinomite:

Boss (Benjiro): Anthony B. Wong

Fixer (Felicia): Michelle Rodriguez

Sev (Samir): Andy Samberg

Scorch (Samson): Samuel L. Jackson

CC (Kathalle): Zooey Deschanel

Kathalle did not make an appearance in this chapter.


End file.
